When you run a small business, you need to work hard to achieve a good reputation. There is so much competition around you, even if you sell something unique or provide a bespoke service. When you have a good reputation, you can truly compete with your rivals. When you have a bad reputation, you won’t have that chance, as customers will bypass you.
One way you can ensure that your reputation remains good once you achieve it is to give back in some way. There are several ways you can do this, and it will depend on what you think will work best for your business. Read on for some ideas and see what you can implement as soon as possible.
Give to Charity
One of the best ways that a business can give back is to give some of its profits to charity. It’s easy to do, takes no time at all, but can make a huge difference to the people you’re helping. Even the smallest of donations will do some good.
Make sure that you tell your customers in your marketing that you donate a percentage of your money to charity, and whether it’s to a charity for veterans, animals, or the local community, you can show that you’re doing what you can with the money you make. This might even make people more likely to buy from you, although that shouldn’t be your only motivation.
Go Green
Another excellent way to give back if you run a business is to go green. This might sound strange, but the fact is that, if you can be more energy-efficient, you’ll be protecting the environment. As an added benefit, you’ll also save money on your energy bills, and you’ll be a much more exciting proposition for people to buy from if they know you – and by extension them when they spend money with you – are doing your bit for the planet.
So, what is it you can do to help the environment and build your reputation? Here are some ideas:
- Use LED bulbs
- Switch to energy-efficient equipment
- Go paperless
- Recycle more
- Use recyclable packaging
- Partner with other green businesses
- Cut down on waste
Offer Your Services to the Community
Although this might be a little more of a challenge for businesses that are solely online enterprises, if you run a local business, it’s a good idea to offer your services to the community when you can.
How you do this will depend on what your business does, but whatever it is you do, make sure the whole community can benefit from it. Perhaps you’ll put money into making local green spaces more attractive or maybe you’ll organize a litter-picking event. It could be that you use your own products and services to do something good.
The more you can do for your community, the more your reputation will grow (you should find new customers and get good feedback), and the result also means you’ll be living in a better place.